ARLINGTON, Texas -- Orlando Antigua stepped out of the Kentucky locker room deep within
AT&T Stadium, two days before the Wildcats were to take the floor
against Wisconsin in the Final Four.

He was immediately besieged by reporters and TV cameras.

For
a few minutes, Antigua must have felt like John Calipari, who draws the
same kind of crowd wherever he goes. But the Wildcats' top assistant
seemed to be enjoying the hub-bub, knowing full well such interest will
be hard to come by starting next week.

Antigua was hired this week
as the new coach at South Florida, a school that's made only three NCAA
tournament appearances in its history. He'll go from a program pursuing
its ninth national championship to one that's won just one conference
title, and from one of the sport's heavyweights to a school that
struggles for attention in its own hometown.

Antigua will assume
his new job full-time once the Wildcats' season ends -- Saturday night if
they lose to the Badgers, or Monday night if they make the title game.

So what made a basketball backwater like South Florida so appealing?

"The
combination of things," Antigua said. "Knowing the commitment the
university has made to the athletic department, to the facilities they
have, to the players they've got on their current roster -- the
combination of those things allows you to be in a position to go out and
compete."

Antigua has certainly grown accustomed to winning programs.

He
got his start in coaching at his alma mater, Pittsburgh, spending five
seasons with Jamie Dixon. He joined Calipari at Memphis in 2009, and
then followed him to Kentucky, where he has been instrumental in landing
many of the Wildcats' one-and-done stars.

Still, things haven't always been so easy for the basketball vagabond.

He
was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in a rough neighborhood
of the Bronx. His family went through periods of homelessness, and as
the oldest of three brothers, responsibility for keeping everyone
together often fell on his shoulders.

On Halloween night in 1988,
the 15-year-old Antigua was shot just a few blocks away from his
family's apartment. A prank gone awry left a bullet lodged behind his
left eye. Doctors initially said it would be too dangerous to remove the
slug, so it remained there for six years, until a doctor gently pulled
it from his ear canal after a series of severe headaches that he thought
came from swimming in the ocean.

After his college career, Antigua played anywhere he could find a court and a ball.

He
became the first Latin American player with the Harlem Globetrotters,
spending seven years traveling the world. He also played in the Puerto
Rico Superior Basketball League, and was a member of the Dominican
Republic national team.

All those varied experiences have helped
Antigua connect with kids, making him one of the top nation's recruiters
and popular among the freshmen who arrive on campus.

"I don't
know if everyone wants to be a head coach, but I know he'll be a great
one," Wildcats guard Aaron Harrison said. "I know he's excited, and I'm
excited for him, and proud of him."

Fellow freshman Marcus Lee joked that Antigua is the only one with more energy than himself.

The
close bonds Antigua formed with his Kentucky players compelled him to
ask South Florida athletic director Mark Harlan to allow him to finish
out the NCAA tournament, even though it meant that he'd have to put off
hiring a staff and getting to know his new players.

Antigua didn't
say whether he would remain the coach of the Dominican national team,
which has qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1978. He
did say he would establish recruiting networks in Latin America, a
potentially untapped source of talented prospects.

"The world is getting a lot smaller in terms of basketball," he said.

Calipari knows that he's losing one of his top lieutenants, but he believes that South Florida is the perfect fit for Antigua.

"The
school has unbelievable potential," Calipari said. "He's in a league
that he can win. Being South Florida, one of his home bases is going to
be the Dominican Republic, which he will be able to recruit. So now
you're talking South Florida with a little Latin flavor.